Categories

April 10, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Crusades

In about 1095, Alexios I Komnenos, the Byzantine emperor, sent to the pope, Urban II, and asked for aid from the west against the Seljuq Turks, who taken nearly all of Asia Minor from him. (Fordham)

At the Council of Clermont (in what’s now southern France), Pope Urban II called for peace among his audience, for them to unite against a common enemy. (Forbes)

“All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested.”

“O what a disgrace if such a despised and base race, which worships demons, should conquer a people which has the faith of omnipotent God and is made glorious with the name of Christ!” (Pope Urban II, Fulcher of Chartres, Fordham)

“Of holy Jerusalem, brethren, we dare not speak, for we are exceedingly afraid and ashamed to speak of it. This very city, in which, as you all know, Christ Himself suffered for us, because our sins demanded it, has been reduced to the pollution of paganism and, I say it to our disgrace, withdrawn from the service of God.” (Pope Urban II, Balderic of Dol, Fordham)

“Let us suppose, for the moment, that Christ was not dead and buried, and had never lived any length of time in Jerusalem. Surely, if all this were lacking, this fact alone ought still to arouse you to go to the aid of the land and city — the fact that ‘Out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem!’” (Pope Urban II, Guibert de Nogent, Fordham)

“And you ought, furthermore, to consider with the utmost deliberation, if by your labors, God working through you, it should occur that the Mother of churches should flourish anew to the worship of Christianity, whether, perchance, He may not wish other regions of the East to be restored to the faith against the approaching time of the Antichrist.”

“For it is clear that Antichrist is to do battle not with the Jews, not with the Gentiles; but, according to the etymology of his name, He will attack Christians. And if Antichrist finds there no Christians (just as at present when scarcely any dwell there), no one will be there to oppose him, or whom he may rightly overcome.” (Pope Urban II, Guibert de Nogent, Fordham)

Pope Urban II called for defense of his fellow Christians who were under threat, and to retake Jerusalem that he said was rightfully theirs. (Forbes)

Thus began the crusades – a holy war. The aristocracy of 11th-century Europe was indeed prepared to kill, if in service of the ‘right’ cause. And this was the ‘right’ cause for many of them. This warrior culture overlapped already with religion. They fought for family and for themselves, and certain types of warfare (in defense of the defenseless) could even lead to salvation.

In the end, Urban’s preaching tour inspired men to leave home, walk 2,500+ miles to Jerusalem, to kill people they’d never met and hardly heard of before. (Forbes)

The Crusades were waged by Christians against Muslims, Jews and fellow Christians. They were launched in the Middle East, in the Baltic, in Italy, in France and beyond. (Smithsonian) Between 1095 and 1291 there were seven major crusades.

Victorious leaders promptly divided up the territory into a small group of principalities that modern European historians have often called the “Crusader states.”

Crusading, or the idea of taking a holy vow to engage in military activity in exchange for spiritual reward, was refined over the next century, redirected to apply to whoever the pope decided might be an enemy of the faith (polytheists and Orthodox Christians in the north, Muslims in Iberia, heretics or rival European Christian powers in France and Italy).

In the Middle East, Jerusalem fell back into Islamic hands with the conquest of the city by the famed sultan Saladin in 1187. The last “Crusader” principality on the eastern Mediterranean coast, based out of the city of Acre, fell to the Mamluk ruler Baibars in 1291. (Smithsonian)

At this same time, stuff was happening in the Pacific, as well.

Using stratigraphic archaeology and refinements in radiocarbon dating, recent studies suggest it was about this same time that “Polynesian explorers first made their remarkable voyage from central Eastern Polynesia Islands, across the doldrums and into the North Pacific, to discover Hawai‘i.” (Kirch)

“Most important from the perspective of Hawaiian settlement are the colonization dates for the Society Islands and the Marquesas, as these two archipelagoes have long been considered to be the immediate source regions for the first Polynesian voyagers to Hawai‘i. …”

“In sum, the southeastern archipelagoes and islands of Eastern Polynesia have a set of radiocarbon chronologies now converging on the period from AD 900–1000.” (Kirch)

Research indicates human colonization of Eastern Polynesia took place much faster and more recently than previously thought. Polynesian ancestors settled in Samoa around 800 BC, colonized the central Society Islands between AD 1025 and 1120 and dispersed to New Zealand, Hawaiʻi and Rapa Nui and other locations between AD 1190 and 1290. (Hunt; PVS)

With improved radiocarbon dating techniques and equipment to more than 1,400-radiocarbon dated materials from 47 islands, the model considers factors such as when a tree died rather than just when the wood was burned and whether seeds were gnawed by rats, which were introduced by humans. (PVS)

“There is also no question that at least O‘ahu and Kauai islands were already well settled, with local populations established in several localities, by AD 1200.” (Kirch)

Late and rapid dispersals explain remarkable similarities in artifacts such as fishhooks, adzes and ornaments across the region. The condensed timeframe suggests assumptions about the rates of linguistic evolution and human impact on pristine island ecosystems also need to be revised. (PVS)

So, as the holy wars of the Crusades were waging into the Middle East, the Polynesians were first arriving and settling in what we refer to as the Hawaiian Islands.

April 8, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

James Magee

A “convivial, noble-hearted Irishman,” James Magee was born in 1750 and appears to have emigrated shortly before the American Revolution. Boston town records for 1768 note the arrival of a James Magee with a group of Irish fishermen from Newfoundland (it’s not clear that that’s the same person).

Captain James Magee, of Boston, rose to eminence in maritime pursuits; he helped establish the first American commercial house in China; and he was one of the first in the East-India trade.

During the American Revolution, Magee commanded the privateer (privately owned armed vessel commissioned to attack enemy ships, usually vessels of commerce) Independence, which captured and brought into Boston harbor the British ship Countess.

From 1779 to 1783 Magee was master of at least three vessels: Amsterdam, Hermione and Gustavus. With the war over, he married Margaret Elliot of Boston in October 1783, the youngest daughter of Simon Elliot, a well-known tobacco and snuff dealer.

Post-war Yankee ships expanded their reach and found their way into the ports of the Baltic, the Mediterranean and even around the Cape of Good Hope to the Indies.

In 1784, as part of this probing operation, Major Samuel Shaw sent the Empress of China to Canton with a cargo of ginseng. The Empress of China arrived at Macao on August 23, 1784, six months out from New York.

Later, after receiving the honorary title of American consul at Canton, Shaw, Isaac Sears and other New York merchants arranged for the ship Hope to both Batavia (Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, Indonesia) and Canton (Guangzhou, China).

Sears chose James Magee to Captain the voyage, and on February 4, 1786 Hope sailed from New York carrying both Sears and Shaw as passengers and established the first American commercial house in China

By summer, Magee was back in Boston, and in September a portion of Hope’s cargo was offered for sale at the store of his nephew, Simon Elliot.

“As the first Boston captain to visit either Batavia or Canton, Magee must have been a source of keen interest among the town’s merchants and his voyage an important stimulant to those mulling the prospects of Oriental trade.”

Although America was outstripping every other nation in China trade, save Britain, she could not long compete with Britain without a suitable medium. The Canton market accepted little but specie (a silver coin, as distinguished from bullion or paper money) and eastern products.

Ginseng, the typical exchange, could be procured and sold only in limited quantities. The ship Columbia was fitted out by a group of Boston merchants who believed the solution of the problem lay in the furs of the Northwest Coast.

The first association of Boston with the Northwest Coast was in 1787, when Joseph Barrell and his co-adventurers sent out the Columbia and the Washington. (Howay) John Kendrick commanded both the expedition and the ship Columbia.

The Columbia left Boston on September 30, 1787; that voyage began the Northwest fur trade, which enabled the merchant adventurers of Boston to tap the vast reservoir of wealth in China.

In the summer of 1789, before a full cargo of skins had been obtained, provisions began to run low. Captain Kendrick therefore remained behind, but sent Gray in the Columbia to Canton, where he exchanged his cargo of pelts for tea, and returned to Boston around the world. Her rivals were quick to follow.

Following this, Lieutenant Thomas Lamb and his brother James, merchants, joined Captain Magee in building the ship Margaret, one hundred fifty tons, which was commanded by Magee on December 24, 1791, “bound on a voyage of observation and enterprise to the North-Western Coast of this Continent.”

The Margaret was under command of Captain James Magee, one of her owners; David Lamb, first mate; Otis Liscombe, second mate; Stephen Hills, third mate, and John Howell, historian.

The Margaret was, says Haswell, “as fine a vessel as ever I saw of her size, and appeared exceeding well fitted for the voyage and I believe there was no expense spared.”

The captain, Magee, was Irish; Mr. Howel was English; there were two Swedes and one Dutchman before the mast; but all the remainder of her officers and crew were American. Including the boys, the total number on board was twenty-five.

About July 19, 1792, the Margaret sailed to the Columbia River in search of furs. On her return she reported little success. Magee got sick, and on August 12, Lamb, the first mate, took command of the Margaret and had sailed in company with the Hope.

Magee got sick to such a degree that he was intensely anxious to put foot on shore, in the hope that change of scene and the land air might prove beneficial. The men were set to work to build a house for his temporary residence.

When Vancouver anchored there on August 28, 1792, he found Captain Magee living on shore with his surgeon and John Howel.

Captain Magee appears to have steadily improved in health after leaving the coast. On November 8, while off Hawai‘i, where the Margaret was busy buying supplies, Captain Barkley of the Halcyon went on board.

Captain Magee received his visitor in a friendly manner and they soon agreed to go in company to Waikiki Bay, Oahu, to procure water. The three vessels, Halcyon, Margaret, and Hope anchored at Waikiki about a mile and a half off shore. The water was so clear that lying in ten fathoms they could plainly see the bottom.

The next night, fearing that the natives had some scheme to capture them, they set sail and, on the morning of 11th, arrived at Kauai. Late that afternoon they anchored in Waimea Bay. On the 13th the Halcyon sailed for China. The Margaret followed her ten days later, and reached Macao January 3, 1793.

Returning to the Islands, Magee wrote the following on behalf of one of his crew who was to stay in Hawai‘i: “Ship Margaret at Anchur, Whahoo, Oct’r 6th 1793. This may certify that the bearer, Oliver Holmes, having ever behaved himself with great propriety, as an honest and active man, towards his duty while on board the Margaret, under my command, and was discharged, by his own desire, to tarry on shore at the Island. James Magee.”

(Holmes became one of the first dozen foreigners (and one of the first Americans) to live in Hawaiʻi (he lived on the island of Oʻahu.) Holmes married Mahi i, daughter of a high chief of Koʻolau who was killed in the battle of the Nuʻuanu Pali. Holmes made his living managing his land holdings on Oʻahu and Molokai, providing provisions to visiting ships. (Oliver Wendell Holmes was born August 29, 1809 in Cambridge, Massachusetts – Oliver Holmes was in Hawai‘i at the time.))

By this time, the trade route Boston – Northwest Coast – Canton – Boston was fairly established. Not only the merchantmen of Massachusetts, but the whalers balked of their accustomed traffic by European exclusiveness, were swarming around the Horn in search of new markets and sources of supply.

To obtain fresh provisions and prevent scurvy, the Northwest traders broke their voyage at least twice; at the Cape Verde Islands, the Falklands, sometimes Galapagos for a giant tortoise, and invariably Hawai‘i (which proved an ideal spot to replenish supplies).

The Northwest trade, the Hawaiian trade, and the fur seal fisheries were only a means to an end – the procuring of Chinese teas and textiles – to sell again at home and abroad. China was the only market for sea otter, and Canton the only Chinese port where foreigners were allowed to exchange it. Magee was part of the origins of the China trade.

April 7, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Coffee Schedule

“You know, when you in the seventh grade like that, to carry one bag of coffee was quite a chore. And load three bags on a donkey and come up the trail. When it rain, the donkey would slip on the trail, fall. Had to unload the coffee, get the donkey up, load it again. I know, many times, I used to cry.” (Minoru Inaba)

As early as 1684, a grammar school founded in Massachusetts required 12 months of education. In 1841, Boston schools operated for 244 days while Philadelphia implemented a 251-day calendar.

In the beginning of the nineteenth century, large cities commonly had long school years, ranging from 251 to 260 days. During this time, many of these rural schools were only open about 6 months out of the year. (Pedersen)

The origin for the traditional school calendar based purely on agrarian needs was not entirely accurate. In the 19th century districts organized their calendars around the needs of the community.

For example, some special provisions were made for vacations during September and October for communities with large fall harvests. Prior to 1890, students in major urban areas were in school for 11 months a year. But by 1900, the more popular 180 day, 9-month calendar had been firmly established. (Pedersen)

In the days before air conditioning, schools and entire cities could be sweltering places during the hot summer months. Wealthy and eventually middle-class urbanites also usually made plans to flee the city’s heat, making those months the logical time in cities to suspend school.

By the late 19th century, school reformers started pushing for standardization of the school calendar across urban and rural areas. So a compromise was struck that created the modern school calendar. (PBS)

In Kona, the harvest of coffee used to set the school calendar. “(B)ecause coffee was the basic industry in those days, much of the land was planted in coffee, of course. As of now, much of the land has been abandoned. But in those days, coffee was the basic industry in Kona.”

“(T)here was no other industry in Kona except coffee farming, and the sugar plantation, for a while. And of course, ranching, they had from way back. There was no tourism. No other businesses except coffee farming in Kona. … Most of the families were farmers. … coffee farmers.” (Minoru Inaba)

“As early as 1916 a ‘coffee vacation’ of three weeks in each November was an established institution in central Kona, where 95 per cent of Hawaii’s coffee industry is located.”

“It continued up to 1924, when the ‘vacation’ became optional – each school deciding when and how many weeks the vacation may be held each autumn.” (Inouye)

Then, in 1931, “A special vacation of three weeks for all schools in Kona has been sanctioned by the department of public instruction … The length of the vacation was a compromise between four or five weeks wanted by the (coffee) planters, and two weeks favored by most school principals.” (Hawaii Tribune Herald, Sep 23, 1931)

That, apparently, wasn’t good enough to address the needs of families of Konawaena – a couple weeks later it was announced, “Members of the Kona-waena Parent-Teacher association gave their unanimous approval at a meeting yesterday …”

“… to the plan to change the Kona-waena school year from September to June to December to September, allowing school children to assist in the coffee harvest during the months of September, October, and November.”

“The action was taken to eliminate the so-called ‘coffee vacation’ which makes it necessary for students to make up the time lost by attending school during the Thanksgiving holiday period and for five Saturdays after the first of February.”

“Much opposition had developed to the coffee vacation and the new proposal was suggested as a means of adapting the school year to the needs of industry in the Kona district.” (Hawaii Tribune Herald, Nov 23. 1931)

The Star Bulletin announced “Change in Vacation Time at Kona-Waena … With the approval of the new vacation schedule for the Kona-waena high school and grammar school in Kona by the West Hawaii commissioners, the annual vacation will be shifted from summer to winter.” (SB, Feb 13, 1932)

“)B)ecause of the need of the farmers to have their children help them on the farms, the coffee schedule was established. And the coffee schedule ran from … August, September, October, November – those three months – was the regular vacation – coffee vacation. This is the time when it was coffee season, you see?” (Minoru Inaba)

“(T)he summer vacation was really a fall vacation and started around the 16th of August and went through to about the 16th of November. So, that took most of the football season. The community associations didn’t get into football, because that would have only hurt the reason for the schedule as it was.”

“It would take kids away from picking coffee and helping their families. I think eventually, though, these kids found other things to do – possibly (because of) family transportation. Kids found other things to do a lot better than picking coffee.” (Sherwood Greenwell)

“You see, how they got that, you have to have the school kids pick coffee, eh? That’s the only way they can help the parents, by picking coffee. So, if you stay home from school, you lose that much education. I guess they entered a resolution or whatever you call it. Anyway, they got their school to change the time … that’s when you’re picking coffee.”

“We [normally] go back September. … the peak season is right when the school go back. So, they change it so that they have their Kona schedule on a coffee harvest time. Well, it worked out all right like that.” (Willie Thompson)

“(I)n the earlier days, on off season, the time before harvesting and after trimming, there weren’t job opportunities for the farmers. There was a criticism – probably doesn’t hold as much today because there’re not as many schoolteachers that are in the coffee business – but a lot of the schoolteachers that came back here, came back here because they had coffee farms – their

families had coffee farms.”

“Well, the coffee schedule really ended because the families could no longer get the kids to come back and spend the time on the farms to pick coffee, which the coffee schedule was supposed to take care of.”

“But those teachers that had coffee farms were more concerned about their coffee operations really than they were on their teaching. The teaching gave them the security of a steady income, while the coffee income was what they were really concerned about.” (Sherwood Greenwell)

“There were probably five or six years of where there was a question, (should) the coffee schedule be continued or (should) they give it up? This became quite a hassle. It was kept, I think, longer than it was practical.”

“Probably for one reason more than anything else, and that was that a lot of the farmers felt that it was a concession that they had somehow gotten that was very important to them. Not that it was that worthwhile to them, but it was a concession that government had given them and they wanted it sort of there, even though it wasn’t working out as well as it should.”

“So, I think that probably extended the [time]. And it also – you got a feeling from the attitude of some people that if you were for going back to the regular schedule, that you were an enemy to coffee.”

“This was a feeling, I think, that a lot of people had who would like to have seen the thing [coffee schedule] dropped. It took some time and some guts for most of the people to overcome that feeling. So, I think it did continue longer than it should have.”

“I think it would have been better for the kids and everybody that it would be over with sooner. Kids going into college off the Kona schedule, college almost had started before they graduated, and I don’t think it helped that type of education – you know, ongoing education – for the kids.” (Sherwood Greenwell)

Kona was not the only place with crop-based vacations … “(O)ne year, we were cutting back across the states, and there was a kid in Idaho fishing at a stream where we were fishing. We asked him how come he wasn’t in school. He said, ‘oh, spud vacation’. What they did was, school was let out at the height of the potato harvesting season for two weeks.”

“Something like that probably would have been a better way of doing it. Going on the regular schedule and then just having a vacation tied right into the harvesting period.” (Sherwood Greenwell)

“Then, the coffee kind of faded out. All the new teachers, they didn’t like teaching when all the other teachers have a rest, and they working. Then, they changed back to the regular. Then, the weather kind of changed too. Not much coffee. The season kind of different, too. So, that’s how they got the schools like that … about in the ’60s, they changed back to the regular schedule.” (Willie Thompson)

“I think, at the beginning, there was a real reason for it and I think it worked out very well. I think it strengthened the ties within the family where they all were working together for something.”

“I know it’s been said at times, if you had someone applying for a job that came from Kona, he was a good worker. He had good loyalty and he was a good worker. I think that all comes from that period where everybody in the family worked hard together.” (Sherwood Greenwell)

In 1932, the school coffee schedule was inaugurated. There are 1,077 coffee farms in Kona, covering 5,498 acres. The farms ranged in size from 3 to 30 acres, with the average size being 5 acres.

Kona students picked a total of 25,320 bags during their “summer” vacation period between October and December in 1932. (Social History of Kona)

On June 20, 1968, “The Kona coffee schedule of November – to – August year for Kona schools was ended … in a complicated series of actions by the State Board of Education. The board thus ended a 36-year-old unique tradition devised to free youngsters to pick coffee during the harvest months of September and October.”

A transition year in 1968-69 was “a temporary measure to provide time to plan for implementing an entirely new system in the 1969-70 school year.” (SB, June 21, 1968)

April 6, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Townshend Acts

To help pay its massive debts from the Seven Years’ War, the British Parliament – at the advice of Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the British Exchequer – voted to levy new taxes on the American colonies.

The Seven Years’ War had involved virtually every great power of Europe and spanned the entire globe. While it ended French influence in North America east of the Mississippi River, the war also left the British monarchy facing massive debt.

Since parts of the war had been fought in North America (known as the French and Indian War), and British forces had protected the American Colonies from attack, the British Crown expected the colonists to pay a share of the debt.

Britain also needed additional revenue to fund the administration of its growing efforts toward global imperialism. Before the French and Indian War, the British government had been hesitant to tax its American Colonies. (Longley)

The Townshend Acts (June 15–July 2, 1767) were a series of four acts passed by the British Parliament in an attempt to assert what it considered to be its historic right to exert authority over the colonies through suspension of a recalcitrant representative assembly and through strict provisions for the collection of revenue duties.

They bear the name of Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is – as the chief treasurer of the British Empire – in charge of economic and financial matters and who sponsored them.

The Suspending Act (New York Restraining Act) (June 5, 1767) banned the New York Colony Assembly from conducting business until it agreed to pay for the housing, meals, and other expenses of British troops stationed there under the Quartering Act of 1765.

The Revenue Act (Townshend duties) (June 26, 1767) imposed direct revenue duties – that is, duties aimed not merely at regulating trade but at putting money into the British treasury. These were payable at colonial ports and fell on tea, wine, lead, glass, paper, and paint imported into the colonies. Since Britain held a monopoly on these products, the colonies could not legally buy them from any other country. It was the second time in the history of the colonies that a tax had been levied solely for the purpose of raising revenue.

The Commissioners of Customs Act (June 29, 1767) established an American Customs Board. Headquartered in Boston, the five British-appointed commissioners of the Customs Board enforced a strict and often arbitrarily applied set of shipping and trade regulations (including additional officers, searchers, spies, coast guard vessels, search warrants, writs of assistance), all intended to increase taxes paid to Britain.

The Indemnity Act (June 29, 1767) was aimed at enabling the East India Company to compete with the tea that was smuggled by the Dutch. It lowered commercial duties on tea imported to England by the East India Company and gave the company a refund of the duty for tea that was then exported to the colonies. Compensating for the loss of revenue brought about by the Indemnity Act was another reason for the imposition of the Townshend duties.

The acts renewed a fierce debate over whether the British Parliament had the right to tax the North American colonies solely for the purpose of raising revenue.

The colonists protested, “no taxation without representation,” arguing that the British Parliament did not have the right to tax them because they lacked representation in the legislative body. They asserted that only colonial assemblies elected by themselves should have the power to impose taxes. (Khan Academy)

The most influential colonial objection to the Townshend Acts came in twelve essays by John Dickinson entitled “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania.” Published starting in December 1767, Dickinson’s essays urged colonists to resist paying the British taxes.

Moved by the essays, James Otis of Massachusetts rallied the Massachusetts House of Representatives, along with other colonial assemblies, to send petitions to King George III demanding repeal of the Revenue Act.

Colonists organized boycotts of British goods to pressure Parliament to repeal the Townshend Acts. As British customs officials arrived to collect taxes and prosecute smugglers, colonial opposition intensified, resulting in street demonstrations and protests that sometimes turned violent.

The presence of British troops in Boston was a standing invitation to disorder. On March 5, 1770, antagonism between citizens and British soldiers again flared into violence. What began as a harmless snowballing of British soldiers degenerated into a mob attack. Someone gave the order to fire; this was the ‘Boston Massacre.’

Faced with such opposition, Parliament in 1770 opted for a strategic retreat and repealed all the Townshend duties except that on tea, which was a luxury item in the colonies, imbibed only by a very small minority.

To most, the action of Parliament signified that the colonists had won a major concession, and the campaign against England was largely dropped. A colonial embargo on ‘English tea’ continued but was not too scrupulously observed. Prosperity was increasing and most colonial leaders were willing to let the future take care of itself. (University of Groningen)

Click the following link to a general summary about the Townshend Acts:

Click to access Townshend-Acts.pdf

April 5, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Halepōhaku

As part of the New Deal Program, to help lift the United States out of the Great Depression, Franklin D Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933. The CCC or Cs as it was sometimes known, allowed single men between the ages of 18 and 25 to enlist in work programs to improve America’s public lands, forests, and parks. (NPS)

President Roosevelt proposed that the CCC “be used in simple work, not interfering with normal employment, and confining itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control, and similar projects …”

… and argued that “this type of work is of definite, practical value, not only through the prevention of great present financial loss, but also as a means of creating future national wealth”.

On March 31, 1933, Congress passed a bill under the title “Emergency Conservation Work” (ECW) and on April 5, 1933, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6101 which officially established the ECW Program, administered under the auspices of the CCC.

The CCC had two main objectives – to employ hundreds of thousands of unemployed young men in conservation work and to provide vocational training, and later education training, for enrollees. (PCSI, OMKM)

Enrollment periods lasted six months and enrollees could opt to re-enroll for additional six-month periods for up to two years. Four distinct enrollment categories existed – Junior enrollees; Local Experienced Men; World War I veterans; and American Indians and residents from US Territories.

Juniors comprised 85% of enrollees and were single men between the ages of 18 and 25, whose families were on relief aid. Two groups of older men, Local Experienced Men and Veterans of World War I each comprised 5% of enrollees.

Territorial enrollees comprised 1% of total CCC enrollment and were not subject to age or marital status restrictions and were permitted to live at home and work on nearby projects

For many, just the prospect of three meals and a bed were enough to get young men to enroll. As jobs and income were incredibly scarce, the CCC for a lot of these young men was their first job.

The CCC provided room, board, clothing, transportation, medical and dental care, and a monthly salary of $30 per enrollee, $25 of which would be sent straight to their families, while the other five was for the worker to keep. (NPS)

The CCC was officially inaugurated in 1933 in the Hawaiian Territory under the supervision of the Territorial Forestry Commission and the Hawaiian National Park, but the first Corps work projects were not begun until 1934. (PCSI, OMKM)

Frank Harrison Locey, the President of the Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry, wrote that: “It appears to me that the CCC camp is a kindergarten in a way.”

“They take young boys in, do not work them too hard but harden them for normal employment. That is why I call it a kindergarten or a stepping stone to future labor.”

The CCC aimed to supplement on-the-job training with a formal educational program. Approximately half of the CCC enrollees had less than an eighth-grade education and suffered from illiteracy. To remedy this situation, evening instruction in the camps taught remedial reading and writing skills, general education courses, and specialized vocational classes.

Acting Territorial Forester, Leicester Winthrop Bryan, reported that: “In addition to the good done to the youth of this Island through giving them an opportunity to earn money we have tried to teach them to live together, to work, to learn some useful trade, to continue their education, to improve their health and to become better citizens.”

“We feel that a large number of these boys have left our camps in a much better condition to go out in the world and earn their living and be better citizens.” (PCSI, OMKM)

The stone cabins at the present location of the mid-level astronomy facilities on the Mauna Kea Access Road (the Halepōhaku Rest Camp) were constructed by members of the CCC in Hawai`i in 1936 (Rest House 1) and 1939 (Rest House 2). (The Comfort Station was constructed by the Territory of Hawai‘i’s Division of Forestry in 1950.)

Hale Pohaku literally ”stone house,” refers to the two stone cabins constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1936 and 1939 at an elevation of 9,220 feet on the southern slope of Maunakea. L. W. Bryan, who served as the Territorial Forestry Office and helped with the construction of the “stone houses,” also named them Hale Pohaku. (Cultural Surveys)

In the first entry of the Halepōhaku Register Log (1939) LW Bryan wrote that the “Halepohaku Rest Camp” was constructed by the CCC under the direction of the Territorial Division of Forestry by CCC Foreman Yoshinobu Hada. (The letters “Ha” and the date “1936” were inscribed into mortar near the doorway of Rest House 1 – presumably referring to Foreman Hada.)

In articles published in Paradise of the Pacific, Bryan described Rest House 1 and identifies its’ early usage, writing that: “Halepohaku is well named for the stone rest-house located there. This house is within the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve and is available for use by any one.”

“It is located in a sheltered spot, near 9,500 feet, at the upper edge of the timber line. Fire wood is plentiful and a 2,000 gallon water tank, fed by gutters from the house roof, furnishes a supply of good clean water.”

“A 3 x 5 foot built in stove furnishes ample warmth and a suitable place to cook and the size of the fire box is such that the cutting of fire wood is an easy matter. The house door is never locked and the only charge made is that each occupant is requested to leave the place clean, not to waste the water and to prepare a small supply of fire wood for the next fellow.”

“Aside from a stove, a table and benches, this building is unfurnished. … Halepohaku is only two miles from where the car is left and makes an excellent stopping place for the night.”

“The cabins replaced a complex of buildings near Ho‘okomo, at the 7,800 foot elevation, which had been used by Forestry personnel who were building and maintaining the Forest Reserve fence and by workers constructing the road to Hale Pohaku.”

“The cabins at Hale Pohaku were placed under the jurisdiction of the State Parks Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) in 1962. Hale Pohaku was never officially designated as a State Park.” They later were included under the lease to the University of Hawai‘i.

Per the 1977 Mauna Kea Master Plan, “The Hale Pohaku facility will consist of mid-level facilities for necessary research personnel for the summit, a central point for management of the mountain, and a day-use destination point for visitors and primitive overnight camping facilities.” Master Plan 1977;7

While hunting on Mauna Kea as a kid, we overnighted at Halepōhaku (well before astronomy’s mid-level facilities were built (1983)), as well as in the Pu‘u La‘au cabin above the Kilohana Girl Schout Camp.